Is a 50% canned food diet good?

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Hey everyone. I have been tirelessly searching for a great diet for my cats that is affordable to me (I am disabled so I have a very tight budget). After reading a lot of sad stories about poor kitties having urinary tract issues due to being fed dry foods, I wanted to switch my cats to an all canned food diet. I was feeding them Soulistic, and even though it's only a bit over a dollar for a 5.5 oz can, since I have three cats I realized there's no way I could afford an all canned food diet.

So my tentative plan is to feed my cats one meal of Soulistic's Harvest Sunrise or Good Karma (first one is chicken and pumpkin, second one is just chicken... I think I read somewhere that a lot of seafood is bad for cats?) once daily, and then feed them either Innova Prime, Blue Buffalo Wilderness or Acana for their second meal. It's still way out of my budget to be honest, but I love my kitties dearly and don't want their health to suffer because I'm on a super tight budget. Is a 50% canned food diet still good for my three cats to prevent urinary tract issues, or does they really need to be on an all canned food diet?

Ideally a 100% canned or raw food diet is best. But I understand that not everyone can do that for whatever reason. A 50% canned food diet is good if that is all you can do Just be sure to add extra water to the canned food so that your cats are getting plenty of water. The food doesn't need to be soup-like unless your cats like that. A spoonful or two of water into each meal is plenty. Don't add water to dry food because that will cause harmful bacteria to grow.

Yse, seafood is not good to feed all the time. Some cats get addicted to eating seafood and will refuse to eat anything else. It is ok to feed seafood once in awhile.

You don't really need to feed high end food is budget is a concern. Friskies and Fancy Feast are good brands, though some varieties may contain by-products and gluten. Soulistic is a good brand Sometimes you can buy it as a case which can be more economical for a a mulit-cat household. Wellness is available in the large 13 oz cans which is even more economical for a multi-cat household.

Unless you already have a crystal kitty, then yes, you can feed wet one feeding and dry the other, like Merlin said, thats what I do, I can't afford to feed wet only either.

The key is to keep them flushed out, like Merlin said, so mix the wet with water, so its real soupy, especially if your only feeding wet one feeding. The other key is to feed a dry food, that is grain free. I feed Blue Wilderness, wet and dry. Yes, its more expensive, but in the long run, no vetty and no sick kitties.

If you feed a good quality grain free food, you will find, you feed less of it. Mine get 1/2 3.0 can in the morn, and believe it or not, only get 1/8 cup dry food at night and I wouldn't want any more weight on them, mol, and this is per my vet, she figured out the kcal and based on their proper weight.

I tried the FF route, to try and give them wet both feedings, the kittens threw it up and the others were so sick, they had to go to the vet, cost me more in the long run. You might want to reconsider feeding Purina, which is Friskies and FF, after reading this.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/ralston.html

Boy kitties are prone to crystal/urinary/bladder issues, I have one, and you need to avoid any fish flavored foods and treats. He is the only one, that gets wet, mixed with water, twice a day, he has to, and when put on Blue Wilderness, his crystal/urinary/bladder issues went away.

I tried giving him, wet in the morn and dry at night, his bladder issues came back, his urine was too concentrated, and it burned his bladder walls. My vet asked, what did you change? I told her, she said he *has* to be fed wet twice a day, I did , no more issues.

Thanks for your input guys I will definitely add water to the canned food! It didn't even occur to me to do that, so that was a great suggestion... thanks! I will definitely feed grain-free dry, I was already planning on it. I haven't decided which brand of grain-free dry yet, but I know of a few different brands that are all high quality and about the same level of quality, so I'm just going to pick out of those depending on price and calorie content of the food, since KitKat is pretty overweight, and one of my others has a pound or two to lose.

Increasing water in the diet will help to flush the urinary tract system. This is one of the reasons I like to suggest wet food inclusion into a pet's diet. There isn't any "right" percentage so just include what fits with you and your pet. Good quality wet foods are 100% complete and balanced so your pets will get all the nutrition they need.

There is nothing wrong with the foods you find in the grocery stores. The wet foods you find there are very nutritious and your cats will do well on them. There is no food that is perfect for all cats or for all owners so you just have to find the ones that your pet does well on and that fit your lifestyle.

50% wet to 50% dry is better than 100% dry in my opinion. I prefer about an 90/10 or 80/20 myself, but that is me. Everyone else mentioned hydration and I will again because it is important... in particularly important in kitties with a major portion of their diet coming from kibble. I won't belabor the fine points but if you have any questions feel free to PM me